MATCH OF THE DAY: SOCIAL SUPPORT — EU 1, Britain 0
Referee: World Happiness Index
Brexit was sold as more than a legal exit. In his Brexit night address, Boris Johnson said this was “the moment when we really begin to unite and level up” and promised to “make better the lives of everyone in every corner” of the UK. Ten years on, the result is harder to hide. On the World Happiness Report 2025 measure of social support, Britain is weaker than it was before Brexit. That matters now because Brexit promised togetherness; the scoreboard shows a bounceback since the pandemic but, overall, a thinner sense of support.
1 PROBLEM
This is structural decline. Levelling up was about kindness in the community, trust in others, and institutional trust to help people cope with ill health, unemployment, unsafe streets and family strain. According to the World Happiness Report, the UK has slid from the upper table to a relegation fight. In 2017 and 2018, Britain ranked 1st. By 2024, the UK collapsed to 5th (1.326), dropping below Germany and France and falling essentially level with Italy. While the UK recovered slightly to 3rd it remains trapped below the EU average. Levelling up hasn't really worked.
3 REASONS — why Britain lost the social support match to the EU
1) PLAN — levelling up named the wound, but not the cure
Johnson’s delivery model for Brexit was levelling up. In his 2021 speech, he said success meant raising living standards, spreading opportunity, improving public services and restoring “people’s sense of pride in their community.” The White Paper executive summary defined social capital as “the strength of communities, relationships and trust.” So the plan touched the right territory. But it still never built a direct route to improving the actual support metric. It described the climate around support, not the mechanism for raising it. Britain’s problem on social support is that it lacked a comprehensive plan.
Plan score: UK 4/10, EU 7/10 — the diagnosis was real, the mechanism was thin.
2) POLICY — Britain backed places and projects, not support systems
The technical annex translated levelling up into missions on living standards, healthy life expectancy, wellbeing, pride in place and neighbourhood crime. The policy mix assumed that place renewal would naturally become social backing. Meanwhile the World Happiness Report 2025 keeps stressing that trust, kindness and felt support are what cushion people against shocks. Britain chose an indirect route to a direct human outcome.
Policy score: UK 3/10, EU 7/10 — too much faith that regeneration would automatically rebuild communities.
3) PERFORMANCE — the score fell, and Europe still looks steadier
By the only scoreboard that matters here, Britain went backwards. The UK’s 1.458 in 2025 still left it below the EU frame at 1.515 and below Germany at 1.490, though just above France at 1.435 and Italy at 1.405. The 2025 report argues that seeing kindness in one’s community can matter more to happiness than higher income or even the absence of violent crime. That is why this is a test of whether a society feels dependable. Germany stayed firmer. Britain slumped, then bounced a little. For a project sold as national renewal, that is a poor second half.
Performance score: UK 3/10, EU 6/10 — the rhetoric was social, the results were thinner.
FINAL WHISTLE — what this score really means
Britain’s problem on social support is a failure to turn Brexit’s promise of togetherness into a system that made support feel thicker in everyday life. Johnson linked Brexit directly to the task of uniting and levelling up the country. Levelling up then recognised the importance of community, belonging, trust and public services. But the chain never fully held. The plan was broad, the policies were indirect, and the performance slid.
If Starmer cannot show that the machinery of government can rebuild that everyday sense of security and belonging, Brexit’s grand promise will keep looking like an emotional offer with no durable delivery.
And that opens the bigger question: if Britain has lost ground on one of the clearest human tests of national cohesion, where else in the league table has the post-Brexit promise quietly thinned out?
